An expert system for alleviating overloads in electric power systems: general concepts and applications

An expert system approach is proposed to support the operator of a control center in decision making during emergency operation of an electric power system. The attention is focused on the elimination of abnormal operating conditions caused by excessive power flow in certain lines. The control objective is to return the line flows to their normal limits by acting on the synchronous generators. The knowledge necessary to solve the overload problem is formulated with regards to the most feasible methods for online applications. KEE is used for the development and implementation of the knowledge base. The procedure for alleviating line overloads is translated into a set of production rules, which are interpreted by the inference engine. An example of the system´s application is presented and the functioning of the expert system is shown through a user-friendly representation which makes use of images for each physical variable of the process